Feed Your Flowers Highlighter Juice For Psychedelic Petals

Fluorescent flowers glow under a blacklightNSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology

Need to spruce up the rave cave with a fresh bouquet? Feeding white flowers a water- and-highlighter ink cocktail creates psychedelic petals, as the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology demonstrates.

The experiment’s done by pulling the ink well from a highlighter and squeezing it into a vase — 10 drops for every ounce of water. Leaving flowers a little thirsty before dropping their cut stems into the mixture makes them drink it faster. It takes a full day for the water-soluble fluorescent compound pyranine to soak up to the petals, so plan your blacklight party accordingly.